


Capturing and trapping the soul of an enemy

by queermartins



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Everyone Is Alive, F/F, Human Allison, Mentions of Death, Modern Witch AU, Multi, Werecoyote Malia, Witch Lydia, soul trapping, witch kira
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-02
Updated: 2015-09-02
Packaged: 2018-04-18 15:24:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4710881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queermartins/pseuds/queermartins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lydia, Kira and Malia hatch a plan to trap Peter's soul as revenge and everything goes perfectly, until Lydia loses the grimoire with the soul trap spell</p>
            </blockquote>





	Capturing and trapping the soul of an enemy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rjosettes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rjosettes/gifts).



Lydia always knew it would be difficult to balance college and witchcraft, she really did. She just never imagined it would be _this_ difficult. Malia likes to tease her when they have study dates that it wouldn’t be so difficult if she hadn’t chosen to double major. 

“Bet you’re glad we didn’t decide to expand our coven after all,” they say as they wait for Kira to arrive, she’s late but Lydia figures lacrosse practice ran late again.

“Malia, I don’t think we could fit any more than the three of us in our dorm room.” It’s not that their dorm is tiny, but it’s not exactly large either. There’s enough room for a bed and desk each, and some wardrobe space. And they have managed to maximise the space, pushing the two single beds together to make a double in the corner of the room - perks of dating your roommate. 

“We’d have more room if you didn’t leave your Math and Physics textbooks everywhere,”

“ _Bio_ physics.” Lydia knows that Malia knows that, that they just like to tease her. Apparently it's something about the way that her nose wrinkles before she corrects them.

Lydia’s about to crawl across the floor between them and kiss Malia when Kira bursts in, slightly out of breath, wielding a lacrosse stick in one hand and a tattered looking book in the other.

“Sorry I’m late, I had some trouble getting Lady Marion to let me borrow this grimoire from the library of the elders. She said that these kinds of spells aren’t to be used lightly - especially as revenge on an ex-boyfriend - just like you said she would.” She pauses briefly to breathe. “Anyway, so I told her that Peter isn’t your ex and that he tried to turn you into a hell demon, because he’s basically Satan and then she was more compliant. She even gave me a piece of spriggan finger because they’re so hard to find these days, look.” She digs around in her backpack for a few seconds and then produces something that a non-magical person may mistake for a tree root.

She plops herself onto the floor between Malia and Lydia, forming a sort of asymmetrical semi-circle. 

"Show us the spell.” Lydia says, sparing a quick glance to Malia for support. 

Kira only hesitates momentarily before opening the grimoire at the required page. Collecting and trapping the soul of an enemy. It may seem like a drastic measure to some, especially considering that Lydia is only an apprentice witch, but she’s managed every spell she’s tried so far perfectly. With the support of Malia and Kira - should they both agree - she’s sure she can pull it off successfully. She also wants to make Peter Hale suffer; make him feel the torment and soullessness she had felt when he tried to take her soul for himself when she was only sixteen years old. He may not have succeeded, but Lydia had suffered for close to three years afterwards, walking the line between humanity and nothingness almost constantly. She endured three years of therapy, the magical and non-magical kind. She’s perfectly entitled to want revenge, if you ask her.

Malia places their hand on Lydia’s knee, squeezing slightly. “You’re sure about this?” 

Lydia looks up at them, allows the steel that she feels in her veins to bubble through her body and into her voice. “Yes.”

-  
They spend the best part of two hours reading each word on the page carefully and then re-reading, just to make sure. Lydia mentally makes notes of all the suggestions that are supposed to make the spell more powerful and painful. 

Lydia makes sure to tell Kira and Malia that they can back out now, that they don’t have to follow her into this, she can do it alone. Malia threads their hand into Lydia’s and tells her that if Lydia’s sure it’s what she wants, they’d follow her into the fiery pits of hell itself if they had to. It makes Lydia take a moment just to think about how she lucked out so much, to have Malia be so loyal and love her so wholeheartedly. Kira agrees, because that’s what best friends are for, right?

-  
Perhaps it was bad timing on her part, to arrange all of this for finals week. Or perhaps it was an intervention of fate. She suspects that it’s the former, doubts that fate would be interested enough in her life to intervene. It results in Lydia carrying the tattered old grimoire everywhere with her, even adding it to her pile of textbooks for class. Some may call it obsession, but she prefers to call it precaution. She can’t risk losing the grimoire now, not when it’s so close, not when she spent the best part of a year trying to find the perfect spell.

She gets back from class, ready to tackle her ever growing list of assignments and reaches into her book bag to place the grimoire in its resting place on her desk. It's not there.

She calls Malia in a panic.

“I lost it.”

 

“Lost what, Lyds?” They sound utterly confused, like Lydia had asked them to solve one of the problems in her advanced calculus assignment. 

“The book, I lost it. I had it in class and when I got home I didn’t have it.” She was in such a hurry to get home and finish her mountain of almost overdue papers that she hadn’t checked if she had the book when she left. 

It wouldn’t be lying to say that she trembles at the thought of someone else taking it.

-  
They wait a few days to see if it turns up, check lost and found, scour the lecture theatre that Lydia remembers having it last. Nothing. 

"Maybe you should check the student forum?" Kira muses over the top of her collection of Keats poetry. 

Lydia stops, kind of jealous that she hadn't thought of that herself. Of course she should check the forum, everyone knows that all the items that don't make it to lost and found make it on there. It's kind of like Facebook, but exclusively for UBH students. 

She brings up the forum on her laptop but finds herself at a loss. She doesn't know what to type into the search bar. 

"Try searching for 'old book' and then set sort to newest first," Malia says. It's slightly eerie, considering that to Lydia's knowledge, telepathy isn't something any of them have been able to master. 

The first post is by a user called gymbuddy15 asking if anyone knew where they could get a 'super old book' for their English Lit. class. The second post is more promising, by a user called arrowhead, entitled 'i found a weird old book'. It fits the bill, so she clicks on it to find that it only contains one sentence: 

i know what it is. email me at aargent3@hotmail.com

So that's exactly what she does. She tries to be as polite as possible, she even throws in a few pleases and thank yous. The reply comes quicker than she expects it to - almost instantly actually. 

After a few exchanges back and forth, and arrowhead vehemently denying that they're a serial killer (which she thinks is ironic because that's exactly what a serial killer would say), they agree to meet at arrowhead's off campus apartment. Lydia decides that she'll take Malia, just in case. 

-

She's not sure what she was expecting, but it definitely wasn't this. The apartment is more like a townhouse than an apartment. 

"Holy shit," Malia says, appearing at her side and taking her hand. 

Lydia just shakes her head in agreement, trying to decide whether to press the buzzer or knock on the door. Eventually, she decided to press the buzzer. 

"Yes?" Lydia doesn't know why she's surprised to hear that the voice on the other end is female. 

"I'm here to see...arrowhead." She only hesitates for a split second when she realises that she actually has no idea who she's here to see; just that they have her book and are apparently not a serial killer. 

It's silent for a long minute, Lydia considers going back to the car and finding a new grimoire with a new spell. Malia's hand holds her firmly in place, though, their fingers brushing lightly over the back of Lydia's knuckles. 

The door does finally open, revealing a brunette woman. She can't be that much older than Lydia, probably about the same age as Malia. She has cheekbones that look like they're carved from marble, and Lydia has to stop herself from thinking about reaching out and touching them. A quick look at Malia reveals that they're probably thinking the same thing.

Marble cheekbones leads them through a hallway and into a large living room that's surprisingly warm in colour and filled with bookcases that are absolutely overflowing with books. It's kind of like Lydia's dream living room. 

"So you're a witch," Marble Cheekbones says as she sits on one of the sofas. She looks at Malia. "And you're a werewolf." 

"Werecoyote, actually," Malia corrects.

"And you are?" Lydia adds.

"Allison Argent. I have your grimoire," Allison says, pointing to the grimoire laid out on the wooden coffee table. 

"How did you know it was a grimoire?" Malia asks. There they go with the telepathy thing again. 

"My family, we've been hunters for generations. I've seen a lot of bestiaries and grimoires." Allison shrugs.

"Witch hunters?" Malia says, the fires of defensiveness creeping into their voice. 

Allison shakes her head, takes a sip from the coffee sitting next to the grimoire. "Werewolves, mostly. Occasionally other things, but mostly werewolves." 

"Can I have the book back?"

"Not until you promise to teach me," Allison says, Lydia feels like she's in a staring contest that she wasn't aware that she had signed up for. 

"Teach you what?" Malia asks, a subtle hint of amusement in their voice. Lydia has no idea why, because none of the three existing members of the coven have time to teach anyone anything. It is finals week, after all. 

"Absolutely not." 

"Lydia...we could use her. A fourth member would give us more legitimacy with the elders." 

"Malia, we don't have time to teach someone new. We barely have time to teach ourselves right now. Plus we can't say yes without consulting Kira." Kira wouldn't mind, they both know that. 

"Lydia." Malia's lips drop into a slight pout and Lydia has never been able to say no to that. 

She breathes out a heavy sigh, stands up. "Fine. Tomorrow at 5, dorm 22B in the Ferguson building. Bring the book," she finishes, one hand on the door. 

"You know, I'd have given it back anyway." Allison smirks at them as she closes the door. 

"I like her." The amusement in their voice is less than subtle this time. 

Lydia would never admit to the lopsided smirk on her face. 

-

Allison shows up right on time. Kira is early, Lydia asked her to be so that they could catch her up on what happened with Allison. 

"So, do you always have your meetings on the floor of your dorm room?" she teases. 

"Yes, actually," Lydia replies. 

They fill Allison in about the spell, about how they're going to get all of the ingredients and pick a day. 

"So the Devil tried to steal your soul?" she wonders out loud. 

"No, he isn't actually Satan. He just acts like it," Malia grumbles. 

"He's a greater hell demon. They trap people's souls and consume them, it makes them more powerful. You have to be powerful to survive in hell," Lydia explains. Allison stares at her intently the whole time, trying to absorb as much information as possible. 

Lydia thinks that maybe she likes Allison, too.  
-

It's much easier than Lydia had anticipated to integrate Allison into their lives after that. They meet every day in Lydia and Malia's dorm room to go over the basics; witchcraft 101. Kira joins them every second day after lacrosse practice.

By the end of the first week, Allison is able to freeze water (and once a soda) with just the flick of her wrist. It's pretty impressive, even by her standards. 

Kira suggests that they go out and celebrate Allison's progress. It doesn't sound like a terrible idea, so they get into Malia's car and drive to a burger joint just on the edge of town. Lydia can't help but let her thoughts turn to Peter as she rests her hand on Malia's knee. She wonders if he feels remorse for what he did to her, what he probably has done to so many others; or if the only thing he regrets is that it didn't work. 

"So, this soul trap thing. Does it hurt?" Allison asks, popping a curly fry into her mouth. Lydia sees Malia and Kira share contemplative looks. If she's being honest, she doesn't know if it hurts. None of them have ever done this before but she does know one thing for certain:

"I hope so." 

-  
They hang out together more often outside of coven meetings after that. Sometimes all four of them together, sometimes just Malia, Allison and Lydia. The coach is keeping Kira busy with lacrosse lately - she wants the team to move up a division. It slows down their timeline a lot, which isn't necessarily bad because a few of the ingredients that they need for the spell are proving harder to get than Lydia had previously thought. 

"Lydia?" Allison asks, Lydia hums happily in return from where she has her head in Malia's lap, the later carding their fingers through Lydia's hair. 

"Are you sure you want to do this?" 

Lydia inhales deeply and Malia stops their movements until she feels Lydia exhale again. "I want him to suffer like I did." 

It's quiet for a while after that, then Allison speaks again, "I know. I do too, it's just-" She pauses briefly, and when Lydia turns to face her she can see that she has her bottom lip worried between her teeth. "To trap his soul, wouldn't that essentially be killing him?" 

Lydia considers it for a moment. "Technically." 

"I'm worried that you haven't taken into consideration what killing another living being does to you," she turns to face Lydia now, eyes shining with unshed tears, "Killing him might destroy him...but it'll destroy you, too." She punctuates the last part with a light squeeze to Lydia's hand. 

"Allison's right, you know," Malia says later that night long after Allison has gone. 

"I know." Lydia replies, tightening Malia's hold around her waist. 

She had never really considered what would happen after she had trapped Peter's soul; after she had seem him down on his knees begging for his life. She had never thought that maybe her feelings in the aftermath might be another way for him to ruin her, to have control over her. 

-

She calls an emergency coven meeting on a day that she knows everyone is free. Malia had smiled at her knowingly beforehand and pulled her into their arms. 

Kira is first to arrive, bursting through the door at almost lightning speed. "Lydia, are you okay? I got your text and you said it was an emergency and I was so worried i thought maybe something had happened and Oh My God are you okay?" 

"I'm fine, Kira." She chuckles lightly, "Everyone's fine." 

Allison arrives soon after, concern etched onto her features too but she doesn't say anything, just takes her usual place between Malia and Lydia in their little semi-circle. 

Lydia takes that as her queue to tell everyone what's going on. "I don't want to do this anymore. The Peter thing. Sure, I hate him. I don't want to ever talk about him again, I don't want to see or hear him ever again, I don't even want to hear his name again...but I don't want to destroy him, either. I want to move on." She lets out a long breath, a sigh of relief in a way. 

"Okay." Kira smiles at her, lets her know that she'd have supported any decision that she had made. Malia squeezes her hand, kisses her on the cheek and whispers 'I'm proud of you' in her ear. She looks over to Allison, tries to get across her gratitude for the gentle nudge that she gave her. Allison beams back at her. Malia beams at them both. 

"Lyds, I have to talk to you about something," Malia says later that night, changing into their pyjamas. 

"About Allison," she says. She knows what they want to say, she's been thinking about it since a few days after the burger joint. 

"You too?" They say, clambering over the pile of textbooks in the middle of the floor into their bed. 

"Yes." 

-

They decide to meet with Allison to talk about it, they settled on somewhere familiar. The burger joint that they went to that first time they all hung out together seemed like a good choice. 

"We need to talk to you about something," Malia says, just a hint of apprehension in their voice. 

"Oh no, you guys aren't kicking me out of the coven are you?" Allison replies, giggling. She quickly lets them dissolve when neither Lydia or Malia laugh much.

"No. Just promise that you'll let us finish before you say anything," Malia continues and slips their hand into Lydia's on the table. 

"What's wrong?" She presses.

"Allison." Lydia almost pleads with her. Almost. 

"Okay, I promise." 

"We like you. We like you a lot. The kind of want to take you on dates and kiss you in the rain like you," Malia starts, squeezes their conjoined hands a little. 

Allison opens her mouth to speak, so Lydia continues before she has the chance. "We don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with. We just want you to know that we'd like to try, if you want to. You don't have to date both of us, or either of us." 

There's a long pause, Lydia starts to worry that Allison isn't going to say anything at all. "But I do. I do want to date you." She beams at them both, takes Lydia's spare hand in hers and then takes Malia's in the other.

"Both of you."

**Author's Note:**

> as always you can find me on [ here](http://queermartins.tumblr.com/) and also the lovely Ells [ here ](http://kateslaura.tumblr.com/)


End file.
